Brian Blessed has been in many of Kenneth Branagh’s films including ‘As You Like It’, ‘Henry V’, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, and as The Ghost/King in ‘Hamlet’. He was the original Deuteronomy in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’, and has been in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions. In his role as Vultan in ‘Flash Gordon, his line ‘Gordon’s Alive’ remains the most repeated quotation from the film and his career.

His other roles include Richard IV in ‘Blackadder’ and Augustus Caesar in ‘I Claudius’. His famous voice has been heard as The Pirate Captain in the Awarding winning cartoon ‘The Band of Misfits’ and as Boss Nass in ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’. He has written five books and has been on three expeditions to Mount Everest.

Rosalind Blessed played Emilia in Othello earlier this year, also for Guildford Shakespeare Company, and she was in Titus Andronicus at the Arcola.